#+TITLE: SINS is not SR

* Introduction
SINS takes place typically in the Seattle metro in the 2060s. Fossil
fuels and jet travel have become so expensive that North America has
finally joined the rest of the world and adopted train
technology. Megacorporations have risen in power. Wizards, elves,
sentient AI, and cybernetic technologies have reshaped the world.

* History

** 9/11
A series of six coordinated terrorist attacks by corporate-funded
terrorist groups and mercenary contractors attacked the United States
and Canada on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks
killed 9,433 people (not counting the terrorists who also died),
injured over 11,000 others, and caused at least $29 billion in
infrastructure and property damage. Additional people have died of
9/11-related cancer and respiratory diseases in the months and years
following the attacks.

The attacks included four passenger airliners and two private
jets. Two of the passenger airliners hit the New York City WTC
Buildings One and Two, respectively. The third airliner hit the
Pentagon. Hijackers of the forth airliner, Flight 93, originally had
intended to also strike the Pentagon, but quickly changed course and
flew for an emergency landing in Toronto. Before anyone suspected foul
play, the hijackers detonated a 3 kiloton nuclear weapon which had
been smuggled on as luggage. The fifth, a private jet, flew over Los
Angeles and detonated a 20 kiloton nuclear warhead. The sixth jet, the
second private jet, took off from Las Vegas but made an emergency
landing due to engine failure. The terrorists were unable to detonate
their warhead, but crashed their plan into the middle of the tarmac.

** War on Terror
The attacks lead to a series of world-wide policy shifts in democratic
nations, trading personal freedoms for security. Also, in the name of
democracy, many of these democracies declared war on several nations
in the Middle East. Canada and the United States responded to the
September 11 attacks by launching the "War on Terror". Both countries
drew up their own domestic surveillance plans, aided by the Canadian
Anti-terrorism Act and the US Patriot Act and eventually as a NATO
treaty The Act. The new law devastated the air transportation
industry. Fewer and fewer passengers wanted to travel by air.

In the beginning, only a single terrorist group received much of the
blame for the attacks and the rest of the world were none the wiser
about the corporate funding. However, as wars in the Middle East
devastated and completely wiped out the terrorist groups, government
contracts with NGOs continued to rise. Scapegoat after scapegoat,
invasion after invasion, the military campaigns continued until no
Middle Eastern country remained the same. Military occupations turned
into corporate propaganda machines for restoring peace,
infrastructure, and security. Many US-based corporations grew and grew
until 2025 when the last Middle Eastern war ended.

** Fossil Fuels
Canada and the United States declared they would discontinue all
petroleum trade with the Middle Eastern countries in 2007, except for
Saudi Arabia. Within months the economy took a downward turn but the
sharp increase in employment in North America pulled the two countries
out of the recession while other countries suffered for the next five
years. This increase in fossil fuel use dropped the value of oil in
North America, sparking a feedback loop that dropped the cost of
transportation, increased the use of petroleum, and skyrocketed the
amount of greenhouse gases. This also opened a new market for
clean-air products.

But by 2020, fossil fuel prices caught back up with the rest of the
world again. The airlines continued to suffer. Many of them
consolidated to survive the economic hardships. Other corporations
grew and filled the gaps in transportation that the airlines left
behind. Several high speed trains started to show up across North
America. And a few years later, by 2024, breakthroughs in safe
hydrogen storage, helium production, and grapheen technology put
airships back into commercial use for the first time in almost a
century.

** Apophis
On Friday, April 13 of 2029, the comet Apophis which originally most
scientists predicted would pass between Earth and the Moon, crashed
into a top secret satellite. The impact gave Apophis enough of a
change in trajectory that it plummeted into the middle of
Greenland. The impact from the comet and the debris that followed
melted a significant portion of the ice sheet. This increased sea
levels and decreased the reflectivity from the ice, trapping in more
heat. Unbelievably, the impact itself caused no deaths. However what
followed changed the world forever.

* Universe Concepts
** Drain
Casting magical spells can cause fatigue, pain, or even injury for the
caster.

** Cyberware Essense
A magical curse has rendered cyberware and all body modification
involving IR subject to types of Exhaustion and insanity.

* Archetypes

** Bodge Face
Most of the time they'll con you out of all your credits. But other
times they mess up and that's all folks!

** Bounty Hunter

** Cracker Hacker

** Death Mage
Because they always have a chance of killing themselves when they try
to kill you.

** Double Bass Tank
Magically enhanced, tough, strong individuals who get even faster when
listening to some musical genres.

** Screaming Fist
A korp(orate) crow always cleaning up the corporate garbage and
feeding the crows.

** Technomancer
